1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates a hearing instrument comprising a first part to be worn at least in part within the ear canal (typically designed as an ITE (“in-the-ear”) part) and a second part to be worn outside the ear canal at the concha (typically designed as a BTE (“behind-the-ear”) part), with the hearing instrument being suitable for wireless communication.
2. Description of Related Art
Hearing instruments may be designed for wireless communication with various devices, such as for communication with another hearing instrument that is located at the other ear of the user, a body worn relay device forwarding an audio signal to the hearing instrument, a remote control, a mobile phone, a TV set gateway, a wireless microphone, etc. Communication to different types of such devices may occur in different frequency bands: for example, communication between body worn devices typically takes place via an inductive link operating, for example, around 11 MHz, wherein communication to a mobile phone typically uses a Bluetooth link operating at 2.4 GHz.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012/0002830 A1 relates to a hearing instrument, such as a BTE, ITE, ITC (“in-the-canal”) or CIC (“completely-in-the-canal”) hearing aid comprising a high frequency radio using a first antenna and a low frequency radio using a second antenna; the high frequency radio may operate at 2.4 GHz, and the low frequency radio may operate at 30 MHz. It is also mentioned that hearing aids of the BTE type may comprise a receiver (loudspeaker) located in the ear channel; such devices are also known as “receiver-in-the-channel” (RIC) or “receiver-in-the-ear” (RITE) hearing aids.
International Patent Application Publication WO 2008/089784 A1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 8,526,648 relate to a hearing assistance system comprising a wireless microphone for transmitting a voice signal captured by the microphone via a wireless link to a receiver unit connected to a hearing aid, with both the hearing aid and the receiver unit comprising an antenna. The antenna of the hearing aid may be designed for a digital link for binaural communication with a hearing aid worn at the other ear, and the antenna of the receiver unit may be designed for an analog frequency modulation audio link.
EP 1 389 891 A1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 7,260,234 B2 relates to a hearing aid wherein an antenna coil is realized by windings around the electro-acoustic output transducer (loudspeaker) of the hearing aid in order to provide for a relatively large antenna coil.
Patent Application Publication 2012/0087506 A1 relates to a binaural hearing aid system wherein each hearing aid comprises an antenna suitable for establishing a Bluetooth link between the hearing aids; the hearing aids may be of the BTE type or the ITE type.
It lies in the nature of hearing aids that the daily time of use is relatively high in comparison to other hearing devices like communication devices. At the same time, their physical dimensions are generally very limited. The requirements regarding power consumption or electromagnetic emissions are therefore more challenging than for hearing instruments in general.
While Bluetooth technology is widely available, one disadvantage is the relatively high power consumption of a Bluetooth link between two hearing devices.